3:02 am Carter Lynlee made his debut in our world. After everyone left, we got to have our skin to skin and breastfeeding time before getting up to go to our recovery room. My little man was an absolute pro. He latched right on and went to town. My nurse brought me a snack pack to munch on (sandwich, jello and fruit cup) while I was nursing because she knew I just had to be starving after that super long labor. It was 13hrs of hard labor with 3hrs of pushing. After Carter was done nursing and I regained feeling everywhere from my epidural, it was time to pee. The nurse told me that if I couldn't pee that she would have to put a catheter back in because of something to do with labor and delivery causing the body to forget how to pee, not to mention one of my tears went through my urethra. I got up to go and I was a bit dizzy but I didn't tell the nurse because if I had I would have had to wait a bit longer before going to my recovery room and I was dying for some sleep. We finally made it up to the 4th floor and the nurse and Robert (husband) and I were talking about my labor and the nurse just starts laughing. I asked what she thought of to make her laugh and she said that my mom was just so funny and that she couldn't believe she wiped my face with a pit rag. All 3 of us were laughing at that point. she hadn't had a delivery as funny as mine before. We got to our room and met our other nurse for the day. She went over everything with us and she asked the magic question....
"Dad, would you like to come and do first bath and shots, so mom can get some sleep?" Music to my ears!!! At about 7am Robert, Carter and the nurse left to take care of all that stuff and I fell right to sleep. I got about an hour of sleep before my baby was back to eat again. Carter would not sleep in the bassinet thing and wanted to eat non-stop, so he stayed in my arms the rest of the day and I dosed off here and there sitting straight up. Robert knocked out and wouldn't wake up for anything! Since I had Carter in my arms and had severe swelling and pain from my tares I couldn't get up out of bed and I couldn't reach Robert, so when I needed him to wake up I had to find things to throw at him until he woke bcause no matter how loud I yelled he wouldn't wake up and his snoring drownded out my voice. Thankfully, the nurses came in every couple hours to bring me new water and more meds and really just whatever I needed.
So, everyone says that hospital food is the worst. They obviously haven't eaten at Salem Hospital. The have a restaraunt instead of a traditional cafeteria and omg! It is so good!! For breakfast the first day or every day actually I ordered scrambled eggs with cheese, hashbrowns with ketchup, sausage links and 2 milks. So yummy! The hospital gave Robert a $20 gift card for his food while we were there. Eating was a bit of a chore considering I had a baby who wasn't leaving my arms. I took a boppy with me but it became an extra pillow for me and I used the arm cushions from the couch bed and a pillow on top of each on the sides of me to lay Carter on in the football hold for feeding and I had a pillow across the front of my lap for cradling Carter. I ended up never using my boppy pillow. I don't like it. It is made for people with short torsos I think because Carter was nowhere near high enough laying on the boppy to nurse.
Lunch time rolls around on day one and Robert finally wakes and my parents come back to visit. I orded a french dip, fries, iced tea and a milk again. This time it was easy to eat! Carter was being passed around, so I finally got up to go pee. I was supposed to do so like 6 hours prior. And at this point I was also supposed to have gotten up to walk around and I hadn't. Walking and going pee was the worst! Every time I got up to go pee from here out I would call the nurse for a new ice diaper. Ice diapers are the best invention ever! I don't know how I would have made it with out them. It is a pampers diaper cut and filled with ice that you wear like a pad and if you have tares it numbs them and makes walking, sitting possible. My parents left right before dinner time and I ordered the same thing as lunch and ate what I could. My nurse came back in to take out my IV. I had one because I had spiked a fever durning delivery and I hemoraged and lost over 600ml of blood. My hemoglobin had dropped to a 7. So I needed iv antibiotics to ward off infection. From the fever, I broke out in a heat rash that cover my entire stomach. It was horrible. It itched so bad and at this point I didn't know it was heat rash but none of the doctors or nurses seemed to worry about it so I just stuck it out.
Bed time now, for everyone but me. It was our first night and by the way the day went, I knew I wasn't getting any sleep. Carter the entire day had gone back and forth from boob to boob and only slept when he was latched. So all night long a passed him from boob to boob as I tried to sleep but couldn't because I was so uncomfortable from sitting in the same position all day. At about 3am my nurse came by and asked me if I wanted her to take him from the nursery so that I could get some sleep. I felt really guilty about passing my baby off to someone else just so I could sleep so I told her to just bring him back in an hour. She did. And she said that he cried the whole time and they all had to just keep passing him around from nurse to nurse to hold because he wouldn't let them put him down. I told her I understood because he hadn't let me put him down yet except for the little bit that my parents were there to hold him. So, needless to say, back to the boob he went.
Everyone from the CNAs to room service to the nurses and doctors saw my boobs! I had absolutely no shame. Carter would unlatch for diaper changes and for me to go to the bathroom and that was about it.
Day 2. I had a really awsome nurse for my second day. She was older and wanted to make sure everything was good with me and Carter. We talked a lot! She was very personable. This day started off with my great breakfast again and a new ice diaper. The doctor came in to see me on this day and it was the horrid midwife. I didn't want to see her. This was my recovery time, she was a set back. She told me that I should go take a sitz bath in the bath down the hall since my room only had a shower. I didn't want to because I figured it was just a jetted tub that I would have to try to sit down into and get back up, so, I opted out. My nurse came back by to tell me about the exit class that we needed to take before checking out. We signed up for the 5pm class. Meanwhile my friends Sharon and Steph came to visit us. That was a fun visit. After they left we had to get ready to go to our exit class.
This was my first time changing clothes since giving birth. I slowly got into the little sun dress type thing I had brought and finally put a bra on for the first time there, what was the point, carter was latched the whole time. But since I was going to be around men that weren't docs or nurses, I figured i'd do the nice thing strap them down. We got out the room door with like a minute to spare but this was my first time walking further than the bathroom door, so it took me like 5 minutes to walk down the hall. We got into the class and I see plastic chairs!
Do you know what plastic chairs mean to a woman with 4 tares in her who-ha? Pain! I had to sit on the side of my thigh and switch back and forth from side to side. All the other women looked so comfortable. Robert held Carter in his lap but kept dosing off. It was so embarrassing. I had the only baby that cried and the only snoring husband that I had to keep nudging to wake up so he wouldn't drop carter. I couldn't wait for the class to be over. The cool thing was tho that we got diaper bags and stuff after the class. I still use that diaper bag. I never bought another one.
We walked around for a little bit before returning to our room where we ordered dinner and I got back into bed and lost the bra again because Carter went back to his resting spot aswell. I finally ordered desert with my dinner. I hadn't yet because I figured I was no longer pregnant and needed to start eating less sweets. Ha, I was so wrong. That was the time I should have spent eating whatever I wanted, it was the last time I was going to restaraunt food served to me in bed for 3 meals plus snacks a day. Next time, I'm going to spend all day eating, just like Carter. My parents came in for a little bit to visit again and give me a little break. Ofcourse they figured I really needed it considering I was at the point where I was falling asleep in mid sentance and even when I was texting or talking on my phone. They all told me that I would be sitting talking away and suddenly my jaw would drop and eyes would close for like a minute and then id wake up talking again. While my parents were there id get like ten minute naps before Carter was ready to eat again. He was so fussy when he wasn't latched, we even got desparate and tried to give him a paci but it didn't work, he didn't want it. Anyway, it was bed time again for everyone but me.
Finish up our last day and the sad goodbye next..
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